The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1887-11-26
iemned already" we can claim nothing by

demned already" we can claim nothing By
descent
According to this doctrine, then, itseemi
hard y conceive how any but true believ-
ers could well obey the presidential and
gubernatorial mandate. The unbeliever Il
necessarily pessimist and can have little
TO be thankful for. The world 10 him Is d
vale of misery. lie is subject to pains, and
aches, griefs and disappointments, sorrows
and bereavements, and an infinity Of other
calamities that he can neither account for
or understand, but which he feels are unde-
served, and he naturally concludes this Is
at best miserable world and he would
have Jared better, 70 use an Irish figure
Of speech, If he had never been born. On
the other hand, the true believer, conscious
that he deserves nothing but wrath, yet
resting on the scriptural assurance that all
things shall work together for his good, &C
cepts whatever comes with thankfulness.
He is the true optionist, II sickness, pain,
or other misfortune come, II Is for his dis
cipline; If health, material prosperity and
earthly joys are vouchsated, he Is all the
more grateful for such undeserved exhub-
erance of the divine goodness.
Our pessimist, recalling the history OF
the past year, can see only droughts, short
crops, great forest fires and destruction of
millions worth of other property, vast cal.
antilles and death by accident on land and
sea, discomfort, poverty and wretchedness
among the masses, and crime flamboyant
and rampant
The pious believer waves all this aside
as sent for discipline and correction, and is
thankful that the wickedness of man
brought no more. But looking on the other
side his heart swells to bursting with
thankfulness for the blessings and mercies
that on every hand overwhelm him. Life,
health, and material prosperity may attend
him individually. The land he lives in
has enjoyed peace, the security that comes
of good government, genial summer, free
from pestilence and famine, abundance of
food In spite of short crops In wide apart
localities, business In the main has been
sound and healthy, manufactures and all
our great business enterprises have pros
pered, and, In word, east and west, north
and south, wealth has UNNECESSARILY in
creased and real estate has enjoyed an un-
exampled boom! Cities have grown up all
over the SOUTH west, northwest and south
west like mushrooms, and even sleepy.
rusty old Connecticut has not escaped the
contagion, for we do not find In good Re
publican paper the following pregnant pir
agraph:
Col. Daniel s. Lamont was In Bridge
port, Conn, the other day, and met p. T
Barnum, the famous Snowman, who d
dressed him as follows: 81 suppose you
saw something In the papers before the
election of 1884, about my having said that
owned so houses in Bridgeport, and that
If MI Cleveland was elected / would sell
them for one half of what l then valued
them, that being my estimate of the depre-
citation Of property likely to result from a
democratic administration. Well, I'm a
Snowman and 1t doesn't make much diff
ference what they say about me SO long as
they keep talking Perhaps l did say
something of that sort, but you tell Cleve.
land I've gone up on the price Of these
houses 90 per cent"
And that leads us to say, in conclusion,
that what the pious believer has especial
reason, in this year of grace, to be Thankful
for, is that Grover Cleveland is President
Of the United States. This wise, firm and
manly administration has given. business IN
all its departments that mightiest of all
levers, confidence, and with 1t measure of
material prospect such as the country in
all its previous history never even approx
imately realized.